The state made its first investment in the project during the administration of former Gov. Phil Bredesen, and it was hailed as an innovative way for the state to get involved in clean energy. Haslam and Alexander touted many aspects of the program Tuesday, like the fact it doesn’t use a crop you could otherwise eat, such as corn, the fact that it helps Tennessee farmers financially and the fact that a source of energy is nice when it’s not foreign.

But both the governor and the senator were careful about devoting long-term government funding to what they saw.

“The state set aside $70 million back in 2007, and I think this is a great venture to see if that works,” Haslam said. “We can’t keep doing that. As government, we can’t keep investing in it.”